These wool producers are aiming to revitalize the pure fibre’s worth in Europe

[ad_1] On a windy autumn day, the gently rolling hills outdoors Rome set the stage for an unlikely gathering. Wool producers, designers, activists and even mannequin, actor and farmer Isabella Rossellini and her daughter got here collectively on the farm of Ilaria Venturini Fendi — to not have fun vogue’s prime tier, however to rethink it completely.

“It’s powerful producing wool in Italy,” mentioned Fendi, who retains 600 sheep at her agriturismo, or working visitor farm, on the outskirts of the capital. “It’s turn into a waste product. You'll be able to’t do the entire chain anymore. We have to change concepts — to begin reshaping economies.”

Throughout Europe and North America, the image is bleak: wool — a water- and fire-resistant biodegradable fibre that naturally regulates physique temperature — is commonly burned or discarded as a result of processing prices outweigh returns.

That’s why Fendi was internet hosting the primary in-person World Hope Discussion board, a community dedicated to proving that wool manufacturing may be native, moral and round.

<img loading="lazy" alt="Two women, one of whom holds a wine glass, stand outside near a table." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f9ecfe79-8485-4266-a950-80cc3e37cac9,1760643251458/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C812%2C3024%2C2320%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f9ecfe79-8485-4266-a950-80cc3e37cac9,1760643251458/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C812%2C3024%2C2320%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f9ecfe79-8485-4266-a950-80cc3e37cac9,1760643251458/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C812%2C3024%2C2320%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f9ecfe79-8485-4266-a950-80cc3e37cac9,1760643251458/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C812%2C3024%2C2320%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.303448275862069" data-cy="image-img"/> Elettra Wiedemann, left, and her mom, Isabella Rossellini, run Mama Farm in Brookhaven, N.Y., the place they make use of a farm-to-fashion strategy to design. (Submitted by Isabella Rossellini) From waste to price Fendi is aware of luxurious from the within out. The youngest daughter of the famed Italian vogue household, she left the corporate years in the past to discovered Carmina Campus — “the singing fields” — a label constructed on reuse and regeneration.

The gathering comes simply months earlier than the launch of the UN’s Worldwide Yr of Rangelands and Pastoralists, in 2026, underscoring the urgency of defending conventional herding cultures and pure fibres — and a month forward of the primary assembly of the EU Focus Group on revolutionary and sustainable methods to assist farmers revitalizing the European wool worth chain.

Among the many specialists current was Blátnaid Gallagher, founding father of Eire’s Galway Wool Co-op, which is reviving native Irish wool — almost erased by cheaper Asian imports usually bought as Irish — and has received an EU award for strengthening rural communities. Gallagher’s objective on the EU is to push for clearer fibre origin rules throughout Europe.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A woman in a green shirt and tan hat is seen holding straw in a field in front of some sheep." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3397d632-dae1-4f4b-8cc2-f05076451063,1760636890594/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C217%2C1107%2C829%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3397d632-dae1-4f4b-8cc2-f05076451063,1760636890594/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C217%2C1107%2C829%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3397d632-dae1-4f4b-8cc2-f05076451063,1760636890594/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C217%2C1107%2C829%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3397d632-dae1-4f4b-8cc2-f05076451063,1760636890594/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C217%2C1107%2C829%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.3353437876960192" data-cy="image-img"/> Blátnaid Gallagher, founding father of Eire’s Galway Wool Co-op, is attempting to push the EU for clearer fibre origin rules throughout Europe. (Submitted by Blátnaid Gallagher) “We’re hoping the EU will give the buyer the possibility to know the place fibre really grows,” Gallagher mentioned. “Then possibly we will cut back our dependency on the monoculture of wool from China that results in heritage merchandise throughout Europe and higher help farmers.”

Her optimism is shared by Netherlands-based Canadian designer Cynthia Hathaway who’s been campaigning to convey consideration to Europe’s shepherding cultures.

Via her Wool March — half protest, half pilgrimage — she leads “smooth mob walks” with sheep into cities, a type of sluggish activism to focus on the ecological and cultural worth of wool.

“Transhumance — the seasonal migration of flocks — is without doubt one of the oldest local weather options now we have,” mentioned Hathaway. Her subsequent stroll, deliberate for early 2026, will span a number of days ending in Brussels the place EU coverage discussions on pastoralists and sustainable fibre manufacturing shall be underway.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A woman stands outside near a field holding a blanket with the slogan "stand out with wool" printed on it" srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/84c1b565-e971-463c-8378-bf759512bb7d,1760637360178/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28216%2C263%2C3410%2C2426%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/84c1b565-e971-463c-8378-bf759512bb7d,1760637360178/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28216%2C263%2C3410%2C2426%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/84c1b565-e971-463c-8378-bf759512bb7d,1760637360178/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28216%2C263%2C3410%2C2426%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/84c1b565-e971-463c-8378-bf759512bb7d,1760637360178/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28216%2C263%2C3410%2C2426%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.40560593569662" data-cy="image-img"/> Netherlands-based Canadian designer Cynthia Hathaway leads 'smooth mob walks' with sheep into cities — a type of sluggish activism to focus on the ecological and cultural worth of wool. (Megan Williams/CBC) Gallagher says she believes the world is on the cusp of a return to pure fibres — however she and others right here warn that extra protections are wanted for producers and animals.

At present, lower than one per cent of world textile fibres come from wool. The decline has meant native wool processing operations in Europe and North America have all however disappeared.

Mass manufacturing of wool in China, Australia and different international locations has pushed international costs down, forcing European and North American mills to shut and leaving small producers unable to compete.

“Farmers get 5 cents a kilo,” mentioned Reina Ovinge, who left quick vogue after 30 years to begin the Knit Wit Secure within the Netherlands. “Within the Eighties, it was 25 euros. Half of Europe’s wool is unused or underdeveloped.

Ovinge’s reply has been to construct her personal micro-supply chain: shearing and sorting on the farm, then sending the wool to be scoured, spun and dyed, usually in Biella — Italy’s centuries-old wool hub — earlier than bringing the yarn residence for knitting.

The method runs on group effort and persistence, she says, with particular person orders taking round 4 to 5 weeks.

“That’s the way it was once,” she mentioned. “That’s how we decelerate.”

‘Slowdown’ cash wanted over startup funding Isabella Rossellini and her daughter, Elettra Wiedemann, run the 28-acre Mama Farm in Brookhaven, N.Y. Opened greater than a decade in the past, it's now residence to endangered heritage sheep and chickens and promotes biodiversity via natural heirloom vegetable cultivation.

Alongside cooking lessons, knitting circles and nature crafting classes, one initiative is Farm to Style, a program that pairs younger designers with the farm’s heritage wool to create one-of-a-kind sweaters.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A person in a blue jacket walks behind sheep on a grassy hill. " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f285baa1-ae7f-4e33-a938-af561293dabc,1760640736234/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28363%2C41%2C3363%2C2654%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f285baa1-ae7f-4e33-a938-af561293dabc,1760640736234/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28363%2C41%2C3363%2C2654%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f285baa1-ae7f-4e33-a938-af561293dabc,1760640736234/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28363%2C41%2C3363%2C2654%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f285baa1-ae7f-4e33-a938-af561293dabc,1760640736234/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%28363%2C41%2C3363%2C2654%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.2671439336850037" data-cy="image-img"/> Mass manufacturing of wool in China, Australia and different international locations has pushed international costs down, forcing European and North American mills to shut and leaving small producers unable to compete. (Megan Williams/CBC) “It’s the identical with the farm-to-table motion. Folks acquired actually invested in that motion as a result of they realized after they purchased a cucumber: I’m supporting a farm or conserved land and sweetness,” mentioned Wiedemann. “All issues that assist a group develop.”

Wiedemann says one in all her proudest achievements is getting the time period "farm to vogue" into Vogue and Girls’s Put on Every day, the place younger designers will see it.

Nonetheless, says Rossellini, with out decrease processing prices and public-private partnership to help producers, Farm to Style gadgets can solely stay a small-scale enterprise.

“When you’re very profitable and have an order for 30,000 sweaters, you received’t have the ability to meet it utilizing natural wool. It’s a sluggish course of,” mentioned Rossellini.

Designer Philip Fimmano, who organized the World Hope Discussion board occasion with Dutch future forecaster Li Edelkoort, emphasizes the necessity for affected person, long-term funding in initiatives like this.

“As a substitute of startup cash, we'd like slowdown cash,” he mentioned.

Round by design But there are some wool producers scaling up sustainably, albeit not with virgin wool.

Matteo Mantellassi, CEO of Manteco, the mill based by his grandfather in 1943 in Prato, central Italy, believes recycled wool can rival the best virgin fibres.

<img loading="lazy" alt="People are seen standing in front of a large open buildings." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/a5746579-fb66-483d-aabc-3cd88d422442,1760639564224/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C146%2C4032%2C2285%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/a5746579-fb66-483d-aabc-3cd88d422442,1760639564224/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C146%2C4032%2C2285%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/a5746579-fb66-483d-aabc-3cd88d422442,1760639564224/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C146%2C4032%2C2285%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/a5746579-fb66-483d-aabc-3cd88d422442,1760639564224/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C146%2C4032%2C2285%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.764551422319475" data-cy="image-img"/> Members are seen on the World Hope Discussion board on wool, at on the farm of Ilaria Venturini Fendi, on Oct. 3, 2025. (Megan Williams/CBC) His firm’s MWool is constructed from fastidiously chosen post-consumer clothes, sorted by color and remixed with out using dyes or added water, so as to be each traceable and round. In line with the corporate, MWool generates 65.6 per cent much less CO2 emission than virgin wool, whereas ReviWool — a fibre recovered from the combing strategy of virgin wool — cuts emissions by as much as 99.2 per cent, utilizing far much less water and vitality.

“Till about 20 years in the past, recycled wool was seen as low-cost,” Mantellassi mentioned. “Now it’s stunning — and it saves vitality, water and chemical substances.”

Final yr, Manteco processed 68,000 kilograms of offcuts from garment producers, successful the Local weather Challenge of the Yr award. He’s begun working with the European Parliament on sustainable textile coverage, advocating for a carbon tax on merchandise with a big carbon and environmental footprint to extend their value.

“We have to educate younger designers,” Mantellassi mentioned. “They don’t at all times know what materials can be utilized for what. We've to convey data again to the beginning of the chain.”